Another Short History of Linguistics (81)

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895，The Chinese Navy (the greatest one in Asia at that time) was beaten by Japan. All the warships, if had not been bombarded and sank, would surrender to Japan. It greatly enhanced morale of Japan. They really believed that the alphabetic letter was the best language and final solution of the world, otherwise they won’t win the battle so easily. Besides this they thought they were the real master of Asia. If the national power of Japanese still growing up step by step, they could still believe that the pictogram is a barbarian language.

In linguistic study the most unacceptable attitude is a theory from one’s original standing point or mother tongue without even think about other languages. A Chinese tern to express it as 屁股决定大脑 ‘buttock control the brain’. Buttock is the part of a body to sit on a chair. But someone sit on different Chair will think differently such as sitting on the chair of defender, you will think about how to explain the innocent of the accused. Sitting on the chair of prosecutor you will think about how to convict the accused. So the thinking style of defender and prosecutor is decided by which chair they sit on not by their own mind that is to say buttock decided the brain:

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